SUICIDE 137 A VOLCANO.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 197, 18 August 1906, Page 13

SUICIDE 137 A VOLCANO.

A REMAEKABLB I_Er_*T_*-R-Tamada Kokama, grandson of Baron Yam a da, who committed suicide by throwing himself into the Aso volcano, left behind a remarkable letter, which was found in his pocket-book on the edge of the crater (says a Tokio corespondent). He wrote: The strongest will is his who can go down to a death that makes men shudder even to hear. The cowards to be vehemently denounced are the multitude who dare not die, be their circumstances what they may.

Society is but a battlefield of sorrow and suffering, and throughout life men are as hungry demons fed on torturing scepticism. A'as for the infinity of it all! The tall mountain peaks pierce the sky, the broad ocean spreads out its unending azure, but human life is as the dew of the morning, as the flash of the lightning. It waxes but to wane, increases but to decline. All are plunged in darkness, and know not what to look for. Mercy and benevolence are as the fleeting sentiments of a dream. Why should man torment himself with Umitlessly painful thoughts? Why should he wander in the paths of contaminating sin? Is it not the most blessed ending cf human life to be received into the bosom of pure nature, and for ever to quit the dust of existence? Thinking these things, I pass into the smoke of Aso's crater.